Members

Ireland

Labour Party

Our people

Eamon Gilmore

Eamon Gilmore was born in Galway in April 1955. He studied psychology at University College Galway and was elected President of UCG Students Union at the age of 18. From here he progressed, at 20, to become the youngest ever President of USI; following his term in USI Eamon was recruited by the then ITGWU (now SIPTU) as a trade union organiser. He was elected to Dublin county council and Dun Laoghaire borough council in 1985 for the Workers party, becoming a representative to the Dail (Parliament) four years after. In 1992 he was one of the founders of Democratic Left and he became Minister of State for the Marine after 1994 elections. Following 1997 general election he worked to bring about the merger of the Labour Party and Democratic Left and the successful merge took place in 1998. Since then, Eamon has been a member of the party National Executive and has held a number of portfolios. In his role as party spokesperson on the Environment he has built up a close relationship with the party councilors and is a strong advocate of local government reform. He was elected leader of the Irish Labour Party on the 6 September 2007. In March 2011 he became Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, as the Labour party entered a coalition government.